Growing up in a crowd : social environment shapes the offspring's early exploratory phenotype in a colonial breeding species

In colonial breeding species, the number of adverse social interactions during early life typically varies with breeding density. Phenotypic plasticity can help deal with this social context, by allowing offspring to adjust their behaviour. Furthermore, offspring may not be unprepared since mothers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Royal Society Open Science
Main Authors: Salas, Reyes, Lens, Luc, Stienen, Eric, Verbruggen, Frederick, Mueller, Wendt
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Social Sciences
early-life social environment
behaviour
phenotypic plasticity
learning
colonial breeding
RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR
INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
MATERNAL TESTOSTERONE
GULL CHICKS
REALIZED HERITABILITY
EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR
YOLK ANDROGENS
STRESS
EGGS
MECHANISMS
Lesser black-backed gull
Online Access:https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GRJYB8J06CGXVY3A83RRARJ6
http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01GRJYB8J06CGXVY3A83RRARJ6
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220839
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01GRJYB8J06CGXVY3A83RRARJ6/file/01GRJYDHP6RWPBMN2XYK6XM7Z5
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Summary:In colonial breeding species, the number of adverse social interactions during early life typically varies with breeding density. Phenotypic plasticity can help deal with this social context, by allowing offspring to adjust their behaviour. Furthermore, offspring may not be unprepared since mothers can allocate resources to their embryos that may pre-adjust them to the post-hatching conditions. Thus, we hypothesize that lesser black-backed gull chicks raised in dense breeding areas, with greater exposure to intra-specific aggression, show higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of exploration compared to chicks in low-density areas, and that this is facilitated by prenatal effects. To test this, we cross-fostered clutches within and across pre-defined high- and low-breeding density areas. We measured chicks' anxiety and exploration activity in an open-field test that included a novel and a familiar object. We found that both pre- and post-natal social environment contributed nearly equally and shaped the offspring's exploratory behaviour, but not its anxiety, in an additive way. Post-natal effects could reflect a learned avoidance of intra-specific aggression, yet identifying the pathways of the prenatal effects will require further study.

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